Lingering economic problems and young women delaying motherhood have been suggested as reasons for the decline in the number of children

Summer is a time children enjoy playing, relaxing, and hanging out with friends, but New Jersey children have fewer kids to hang out with now than their older brothers and sisters did a few years ago.

According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, New Jersey had almost 2.01 million children under age 18 in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. That's nearly 4 percent lower than in the early 2000s, when the state had about 2.09 million children. The declines are in just about every age group, with the biggest drop in the under-3 set, whose numbers dwindled 5.4 percent compared to 2006.

New Jersey's child population has decreased steadily in the past 10 years, predating the national decline, which began in 2010. The trend is not a function of the overall change in population, as New Jersey’s population grew by 2 percent or about 150,000 people between 2006 and 2014.

But the flip side of the governor's plan would be the slashing of state aid to the state's urban and low-income communities, and Sweeney convened a group of mayors and school superintendents Thursday who outline the negative consequences of the governor's plan.

Communities like New Brunswick, Bridgeton, Willingboro and Plainfield — those already struggling as it is — would lose significant school funding and lack the tax base to make up the difference, their mayors said.